Cupertino's Big Bunny 5K: the teen ruling the town!

Phew, back to the same-day race report, yeah! The race starts around the block, on a Saturday morning, and is fast and short, perfect setting and much easier to wrap it up on the same day than a 100K race, for a change...

This is a low key event organized by our city, Cupertino. It used to be on Easter Saturday, a date which drew families with young kids for an Easter Egg hunt. Needless to say, the event attendance suffered the pandemic hit. I was told it was still not back to pre-COVID registration levels, yet slightly better than last year. 509 names on the result sheet from SVE Timing.

After breaking my meniscus exactly a year ago, it felt great to have been able to work on rebuilding some speed in preparation of this race, at the track. After last week's workout, my goal was to break 20 minutes, with sub 19 as a big bonus.

In addition to the excitement for this race, or rather stress as I take running rather seriously, my mind and heart were filled with emotion and excitement after watching Ireland-France: what a game for Les Petits and Les Bleus! The game finished 15 minutes before the start of the race, not much time to warm-up! I got to the start just in time, literally! As I got to the front at 8:28, the speaker announced 4 minutes before the start. That was helpful to catch my breath but then, 10 seconds later, it was a 40-second warning. Then "runners take your mark" then... another 10 seconds. Then a 10-second count down. Certainly not a USATF-sanctioned event...

As usual, a few kids rushed out of the gate like it was a 60-meter dash sprint. With my own rush before the start, I didn't have my GPS watches on the right pacing screens so I just went all out as well. Passing by the house at 0.7 mile, I was still in good company.

I ran the first mile in 6:02 which was on the aggressive side, given my current fitness level. And age, I may say. It wasn't too uncomfortable but I didn't believe in me enough to hold that pace. A tall runner I didn't know, Chris Heinonen, 46, was running just behind and I was secretly hoping he was going to pass me to lead the second mile but that didn't happen. Instead, two teens, one with a Lynbrook shirt, pulled ahead while maintaining the 6-minute/mile pace. And, as opposed to 20 or 10 years ago, I had lost sight of the leaders...

My GPS watches buzzed at the exact same time at the end of second mile: 6:25, yikes! Still within my sub-20 goal but better not slow down more, I was eating the buffer... Thinking of my fellow Frenchmen's battle in Dublin gave me a kick and, pushing the pace, I managed to pull away from Chris. Agnès snapped another picture before the end of the third mile which I ran in 6:12.

I kept sprinting to the finish for a chip time of 19:02. Ahh, so close to 19 but I'll certainly take that milestone as a proof that hard work is starting to pay off. 8th overall, 2nd Master (40+) albeit far behind Jonathan Kimura who took second in a blazing 16:31.

Speaking of sub-17, I do miss these years... That was was only my 9th edition as, for several years, the event conflicted with my Boston runs (seven there so far). 16:54 in 2002, 16:50 in 2004, 16:06 in 2005, 16:33 in 2006, 16:09 in 2007 (the year I started blogging), 15:54 in 2008, 16:36 in 2010, 16:20 in 2013, 19:02 in 2025 (12 years gap including two key injuries...). Let's see what's in store for a number 10, hopefully next year, and shaving off 3 seconds!

Quick chat with a volunteer queen, Fari, who keeps our neighborhood safe and prepared for disasters.

I went back on the course to run another loop as cool-down and to net 10K today. The award ceremony started around 10:20. The weather and family spirit were so great that many age group winners were still here, to get the honors of the podium. For a nice change, it started by the 80+ category so I wasn't too far behind! ;-) With Big Bunny, and Alejandro Gonzales who, at 63, was the last of 15 to break 20 minutes today.

The metric I'm the most pleased with is my average stride of 1.38 meters. The longer it is and the faster I go, the least pounding and stress on my knee! I still need to rebuild my glutes, they are the ones screaming at that pace, more than the lungs.

Back to the title, it was humbling and cool to see so many teens among the fastest time today, hats off! The winner of this 2025 edition was Leo Silberstein, 14 years old, in 16:28! 6th and 7th place were 14 too and 10th place, only 12!!! 8 teens or under in the top 20, bright future ahead!

Look at this age distribution. This event is a family one, many parents running or walking with, or behind, their kids.

Good diversity on the gender side too.

And on the world representativity as well, based on people's names. I've lived in Cupertino for 26 years and love that diversity, from Asia to Europe and the Americas of course. Well done, Cupertino, stay healthy!

After this stint into road speed, I need to switch back to endurance and longer runs to prepare for the 50K Nationals in Wisconsin next month, then adding some serious hill training before Quicksilver 100K in May. This polyvalence is both challenging and exciting! And more complicated now that I can't log as many miles as before given my damaged meniscus.

With that, don't forget we change time tonight and see you next year, Big Bunny!

PS: the title is also a wink to my boys who sat on the Cupertino Teen Commission, 10 to 15 years ago...

Palo Alto Double 2024: something new for a change!

This Saturday I did something I've never done yet in my 26-year running journey: two back to back races in the same morning. To be honest, that format didn't exist when I started focusing in road and running speed. That format has been invented 15 years ago by renowned Bob Anderson, who had brought so much innovation to fuel the development of our sport. Bob founded Runner's World in 1966, yes, almost 60 years ago! Bob has even a Wikipedia page to his fame!

So, what is that Double format about? Two back to back road races, the first leg of 10K at 9 am and the second leg of 5K starting at 10:45. The faster you are on the 10K, the more rest you have in between, but more energy spent too. It has a dedicated website as I assume Bob is the only organizer of races in that format. There area actually 5K/break/3K versions of the Double as well. Also, Bob has the top finishers of the first leg/stage, male and female, to wear a yellow jersey, like in the Tour de France!

I had registered to do my first Double last December but I was still digesting a super loaded season culminating in 34 hours at Spartathlon -- 6 marathons at once, way more than a double! -- and DNSed (Did Not Start) due to a last-minute family trip to DC for the holidays. This year has been terrible after breaking a meniscus in March and having to spend almost 7 months off running. I still have so much muscle to rebuild, and the knee is still prone to pain, recovery is a long journey and I did't have very high expectations. Although I was encouraged by at least breaking 40 minutes at the Silicon Valley Turkey Trot 10K, 4 days after running 100 kilometers at the American 24-hour Championships. I had looked at the top times for my age group and, for some reasons -- maybe aging! ;-) -- I remembered seeing the top mark set by a Kenyan at around 48 minutes. My dream goal was to break an hour, although that seemed not only ambitious given my lack of fitness as well as the weather conditions.

Waking up at 5:50 to get my breakfast 3 hours before the race I thought my post title would be: "Rain, not Shine!" The saying "Rain or Shine" seems not to apply too often in California as we get less and less rain, years after years so it's Shine 99% of the time. Agnès and I actually got both awaken at 3:30 am by the super unusual noise of thunderstorm here, and the rain was pouring. Upon picking my bib at 7:30 am, the rain was still going on steady, and wind gusts made the setup of the area super challenging for the organizers.

I was familiar with the 3.1-mile section used for the course as it is on my traditional Cupertino-Fremont-Cupertino 50-mile training ground. So I knew it included a dirt area which was going to turn to mud with so much rain. I didn't know how muddy it was going to become though, that was epic. Thankfully, only for a quarter of a mile, yet certainly impacting our performance for such a short and fast format.

An important detail to add: each of the legs could be run by other participants as a single race, meaning that not every participant was enlisted in the Double. 

As early bird, I had a great parking spot with direct view on the start/finish area. That helped maximizing the time I stayed dry and warm in the car. I get cold very easily so I had brought two sets of racing clothes plus two rain jackets and layers of polar fleece jackets, duh!

When I saw this rainbow forming thanks to the rain stopping 15 minutes before the start, I took it as a great sign for a good day and that it was time to get out to warm for 5 minutes. The asphalt was still very wet, it didn't take too many strides to tip my toes in the water... (Photo credit: Bob Anderson.)

The fast of the 10K was really fast, I got chicked right off the bat with two other gals passing me before the end of the first mile. The lead running was wearing a black singlet, I saw him coming back when I had just passed 2.5 miles (the 10K was a 3.1-mile out and back). The short dirt section wasn't too bad on the way out but already getting slippery. It got worse on the way back after 50 or so runners had gotten through it. Best was to run on the edge, in the grass or rather over native plants, which is still not ideal when going at full speed.

Speaking of speed, I had started at 6:14 min/mile like at the Turkey Trot but I wasn't able to hold the pace especially on this wet course. Also, I hadn't run or exercise for the past 2 weeks first because knee pain after the Turkey Trot and 24-hour Nationals, then because of a super bad bite of one of my fingers, by our cat, which got so infected that I was put on antibiotics, I'm going to lose a nail and it was still bleeding and super painful while running this Saturday, 10 days later... Between that, the weaker glutes, the headwind on the way back, some slippery mud, it was challenging to hold a 6:30 min/mile pace. I kept pushing as hard as possible, not thinking too much about the upcoming 5K, yet I wasn't able to break 40 minutes in that first leg, not even close: 40:36, good for 8th place in the double. The black singlet runner, Anthony Cortes, ended up in 2nd place actually in 34:26, behind Ethan Phelps in 33:30.

I went for a short jog to cool down then rushed to the car as the rain started resuming. How lucky were we to avoid rain during the 10K, what an incredibly timely lull! I changed entirely into dry clothes and put my multiple layers back on. 10K runners kept coming in for a while then there was a 1-mile kid race which was barely over when it was time for us to start the 5K. I did a few sprints to shake the legs off and had hard time getting close to the front line, with many kids at the front this time. With that confusion, the count down has already started when I realized I had forgotten to switch my two GPS watches on! (I run with a Coros which I bought last year for the battery life allowing to run Spartathlon without having to charge, but still use my former Garmin for overall mile logging. Coros also provides quite cool and useful fitness-related analytics.)

Similar aggressive early lead from Anthony again, plus the tricky slalom to pass the kids who started slowing down and gasping for air after a few hundreds yards. This time I wasn't even able to hold 6:15, yikes! As for the dirt section it had now disappeared under huge puddles covering the entire width of the trail. So much that, on my way back, I literally ran into a runner although I was already on the right edge of the trail. We ended up to a full stop, holding each other hands to avoid a frontal collision, fun! There was also this participant running with his dog and the dog on leash in the middle of the trail. Oh well, nothing critically important on the line.

The glutes were painful in the last mile as I was pushing again in the headwind and seeing the seconds passing as my time was getting dangerously close to 20 minutes with the finish line in sight... 20:08, that one was closer but still adding a few seconds above the one-hour mark. (Photo credit: Bob Anderson.)

A total of 1:00:44, good enough to keep the 8th place, and easily win my non-competitive age group.

Again, super lucky to mostly miss rain on that second leg as well, as rain resumed again on and off in the following hour we had to wait to get our age group awards. In the meantime I enjoyed a hot coffee, and winning a prize in Bob's generous draw.

Also ample time to meet and chat with new running connections. Here with Michael Collery, 70-year young!

Did I mention luck yet? Well, it didn't stop with that. On Sunday morning, Bob posted this on my Facebook timeline:

Good seeing you yesterday. Congrats on your performance yesterday. With 84% age-graded you were our overall winner. Your Double Victory Cup will be engraved with your name and sent to you. Happy holidays!

When there is a silver lining to aging... ;-) Thank you Bob and your race organization team: despite the interesting conditions, that was quite a cool introduction to that Do Double format. And always a pleasure and honor to meet you and your wife. Double kudos and fun!

PS: stopped by Sports Basement on my way back home to pick my Turkey Trot age group podium awards, thank you and great too see you again, Chris!

Cupertino's Big Bunny Fun Run 5K: in and out

I was really excited by the prospect of running this local race again, literally one block from my house, can't get any closer! I've had a good run at that event, even winning it at least once: 16:54 in 2002, 16:50 in 2004, 16:06 in 2005, 16:33 in 2006, 16:09 in 2007, 15:54 in 2008, 16:39 in 2010 and 16:20 in 2013. That's like 16:24 +/- 30", quite consistent. To be fair, the course is on the short side, that helps getting great time. But at least the course hasn't changed so that makes for a good local benchmark.

It happens on Easter Saturday so the date varies significantly over the years. Sometimes it conflicted with the Boston Marathon, others, with American River 50-mile, or international business trips or family plans. This year, I could make it, cool! Because my focus is mostly ultra running nowadays, I decided to go to the track on Monday evening for some speed work and faster pace testing. I had run the hilly Redwoods 50K on Saturday and 15 recovery kilometers on Sunday. At the Cupertino High School track, I saw the boy's Coach and chatted about his involvement to salvage the Track & Field program, at least on the running side. It was chilly at the end of the day (6 pm), so I went on to do a few 400s. I felt reassured that I could still break 1:30 for each lap and decided to keep going until I couldn't. There was some strong breeze coming from the North which was making the last turn feel like running uphill. Good training.

After 6 laps, I was able to hit 1:25 for the remaining of the laps. Hamstrings were getting tighter though so I stopped after 12 laps. I was going to jog two more laps before running back home (another mile) but had to slog the last lap as a sharp pain fired in my left calf. Dang, I came back home walking...

I took the rest of the week off but did some solid strength training on Thursday: leg press, leg curls and abs. So much that I was quite sore on Friday, and still Saturday morning, to the point couldn't assess precisely the calf injury. I was so tempted to sign up on Saturday morning but that wasn't reasonable, too much risk for limited rewards. And the entry fee made the decision even easier ($56 for 3 miles, that's one of the most expensive races around!). The last thing I needed was to push too hard to keep up with the leaders and worsen the injury.

But I still went to the start as a running buddy, Jason, was coming to town. Not just to run that 5K but as a prelude to a 10K orienteering race in Sunnyvale 3 hours later.

Also from Excelsior, Jon Kimura, 42, took second place while Jason finished 4th.

Andres Chau, 26, from Fremont won in 15:57.

Jason confirmed he felt the course was on the short side.

Here with the Cupertino Mayor, as excited as a bunny this Saturday, pumping her bunny ears up and down! ;-) 

Impressive was to see the smaller kids finishing strong. Two 12 year-old finished in 20:57 and 21:03, immediately followed by a 9 year-old in a blazing 21:06, wow! All results accessible on SVE Timing's website.

Our friend and neighbor Fari, volunteering once more, attentive to any medical need with this crowd including many first-time runners.

Overall, I ran 2.5 miles around and across the course to take pictures at 4 spots, barely making it on time back to the to City Hall to see the first runners cross the line. Calf felt almost ok although it was definitely the best decision not to get tempted to push the pace, racing. After that I did ran to Sunnyvale as well, and back, logging a half marathon. I'd better take another week off to keep the calf healing completely before Woodside/Purisima Crossover Half next week, and the rest of the Spring season. Big Bunny 5K will have to wait another year then...

Stow Lake Stampede 5K: chasing these impalas

Only 5K this time and around the beautiful Stow lake in the heart of San Francisco's Golden Park, compared to all my ultra races, that looks like a walk in the park, right? Well, racing 5K at full speed, that is under 6 min/mile is no joke, or no walk.

Sure, 5K is short, just over 3 miles, so I ran the whole course first to warm up, then another time after the race to cool down. In between? That was a challenging and competitive race. Challenging because of the rolling course which complicates the management of the effort and pace. And also, because it was hard to pass while staying within the cones when the course got so narrow between the first and 2nd mile markers. By the way, that was some serious course marking, with a cone every ten strides or so!

Not that I could go so much faster anyway, but I did pass quite a few runners in the last mile when the course widen up, getting the pace under 5:30, finally!

My first mile was just on 6 minutes which disappointed me. I could see the leaders throughout the first mile but lost sight of them after the first turn. Despite pushing harder in the 2nd mile, during which I passed a handful of runners, mostly women, I still clocked another 6-mile. So I push harder, further in the uncomfortable zone and that started to pay of as the engine was now firing up while other competitors were faltering. I even managed to catch-up and pass two other M50+ runners I knew, Jeff Ongo and Antonio Arreola, but I don't run these Pacific Association road races enough to know and recognize everybody so I had no idea how I fared in my age group. Until I saw Cliff Lentz catching his breath after the finish so I knew there were others Seniors ahead, not surprisingly in such a competitive event. I had also heard the announcer talking about the runner who had finished just ahead of me to win the M60+ division, Doug Steedman, 62, wow!

As for an illustration of the competitiveness, I got chicked 22 times today, and I was 90th overall! Will Geiken and Kayla Knapp won the race in respectively 14:53 and 16:48, that's blazing fast on that course!

Cliff's time was 18:01, mine, 18:17 and it's only after I was back from my cool-down, my 3rd completion of the course that morning, that someone told me my name was called in the award ceremony because I had managed to take second place. Good enough for a gift certificate from one of the sponsors of the race, A Runner's Mind, how nice!

Check this cool fly-over of that part of the Golden Gate Park to have a better feel of the course (click on this link, or the image below):

Between these generous awards, the free pair of socks at the finish, a few pieces of bagels and bananas, even a free ThreeTwins ice cream (made in San Francisco!) to all finishers, the chip timing, the course monitors, kudos to the Impala Racing Team for organizing such a successful and professional organization. I must say that having that section of the Golden Park just for us that morning was quite something!

By the way, I ran this short race because we had our quarterly LDR (Long Distance Running) committee meeting just after the race, and I had half of the agenda to discuss changes and improvements to our MUT rules. Another topic which had me work a few extra hours at night the past 2 weeks...

That was a great break between the long runs of the past three weeks (DNF at mile 41 at American River, Boston then a 6:20 50-mile at another lake in San Francisco, Lake Merced), and before ultra May Madness (Miwok 100K next week, Quicksilver 100K the following week, then Ohlone 50K 8 days later, unless I'm in Europe for another business trip). The ultra life goes as I was writing last night already...

See many of my Pacific Association fellows at these races in May! I haven't done much hill training which is scary, but I'm excited to get into the warmer part of our season. What about you, are you ready for some shiny California sun and hot temperatures?

The hectic life continues: Heroes Run 5K and more

I feel so bad when I can't keep-up with my weekly blogging rhythm and, if I can't find or make the time to write a post during the weekend, it's really challenging to set time aside during the work week.

Last weekend was one of these challenging one, stuffed with so many activities.

1. It started right off the bat when I was double booked at 9 am: 2 years ago, my boys offered me a TEDx session to attend; because I travel and race so much, it was for me to select one fitting my schedule and it took all this time to get the stars aligned, ironically with a session at Agnès' new employer, the famous Harker School. Yet, I also wanted to race the Cupertino Heroes' Run 5K right in my backyard, as a pre-Turkey Trot speed test. Both events scheduled to start at the same time, 9 am...
2. I also had to work on our USATF Pacific Association Ultra Grand Prix schedule for 2018 and spent more than 4 hours on this, Saturday afternoon and evening, creating a sophisticated spreadsheet and a few emails to race directors.
3. On Sunday, I spent almost 7 hours at the Earthquake stadium in San Jose, at an amazing tournament of Rugby Sevens, with 12 teams from all over the world (Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, Chile, Japan, China, England, Ireland, Canada, USA) plus the top US College teams, what a show!
4. Before that, was able to squeeze a 17-mile long run of course...
5. Church, a date with Agnès, a Marriage Encounter meeting and a few more hours of work to wrap the weekend up, phew! But not much time to blog indeed...

The SCC Heroes' Run is organized by the Sheriff's office and Fire Department of our Santa Clara County, to raise awareness and funds for the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center and the VMC Foundation. While this is mostly a popular and fun event, with many costumes, a few days after Halloween, last year's top runners clocked 2 very impressive times, 15:05 and 15:18. I was back from a sesamoiditis last year and was happy to be running again and placing 6th. My main goal this year was to run fast then rush to the TEDx event right after so I was fine if I didn't make the podium again this year. (Credit for race photos: event's Facebook page.)

The race started late last year and, this time again, the gun fired at 9:08. Despite the small field, the start got pretty hectic actually. First, there was this couple next to me who looked more interested in getting on the pre-start pictures than running.

On the other side of the pack was a tall runner who was wearing headphones and speaking loudly about how fast this race was with times of 15 to 17 minutes, so I assumed he was going to stay a bit behind as we started. No, he actually started in a 45-degree diagonal and cut several of us off, the obstacle race had just started!

It had rained during the night and up to a few minutes before the start so the course was wet. After passing half a dozen of runners who couldn't hold our initial 5:15 min/mile pace, I took the lead and settled on a 5:35 pace. I could hear someone just behind me but didn't want to lose balance by turning my head back. We were also pretty close to the Sheriff's motorcade which consisted of 2 motorcycles opening the road for us. But I didn't feel the policemen were paying much attention to us, they were talking to each other, waving to the volunteers we were passing and watching to incoming traffic. At full speed on Blaney Avenue, around .8 mile, we turn on Price Avenue. As I was trying to avoid a slippery crossroad band on the ground, I almost hit one of the motorcycle who changed direction to stop a big truck which was getting out of a garage, yikes!

Short after this emotion, my Garmin watched buzzed to indicate I had run the first mile in 5:33, good! Well, 5:40 wasn't fast enough for the runner on my heels and I was surprised to see Elliot passing me so early in the race. I know it's just a matter of time that he runs these short distances much faster than I, but I thought this was a pretty aggressive move. I maintained a 5:40 pace and that allowed me to pass him after a few hundreds yards and maintain a lead.

After quite a few turns on this convoluted course, I had lost my sense of orientation and, when getting back on Pacifica, I saw the motorcycles going left and thought this was the wrong way so went right, then stopped to see what Elliot would think. Must have been only 4 or 5 seconds before remembering the course and resuming my sprint for a win in a time of 17:47, Elliot crossing the finish line right on 18:00 (versus 17:31 last year).

Between the lack of competition and the wet road, we both ran slower than last year.

You can see both of us finishing (and the motorcyles! ;-) in this Facebook video.

The third runner was also under 16 (Elliot is 13!), what a strange and unusual podium that was from an age perspective: 53, 13, 16!

All results available on the chip timing company's website.

I apologize to the race director for having to leave right away and he assured me he'll find a way to pass the award to me. Or maybe it ended up in other happy hands! ;-) (Photo credit: Brian Daniels)

A well organized event overall, certainly worth spending the whole morning to enjoy the full experience which includes especially an obstacle course for kids and the popular landing of the Sheriff's helicopter as I mentioned in my blog post last year.

Last but not least, the 3D flyover from Relive.cc:

I was in the shower by 9:37 and parked at Harker by 9:55, seated in the amphitheater by 10 sharp, just in time for the second speaker, what a rush!

I wish the talks were already available on the Harker School and TED websites but they need to go through TED's approval first. I'll post on Facebook when I hear about their availability. We heard from:

1. Ryan Evans, CEO of Inboard Technologies, about an electric skateboard to solve the last mile problem of public transportation as the city centers around the world keep closing traffic to cars;
2. Julie Campistron, CEO and Co-Founder of Stop, Breath & Think, on the benefits of mindfulness in all aspects of our hectic lives (pun intended for me...);
3. Alan Kropf, Executive Director of Education at Anchor Distilling Co., about tips to create your own career through passion and love for what aspires to you;
4. Last but not least, Andy Semenza, a Senior at The Harker School, on the danger of over-specialization and the benefits of team work to break the silos to address global challenges and complex problems.

Respective pictures (challenging lighting):

There was also amazing exhibitors at the expo:

1. Giacomo ONO, a $99 3D printer which uses your phone to control the polymerization process;
2. Serafilm Keybo, a laser-operated virtual keyboard to type text or play the music;
3. Sesame from Candy House Co, a remotely-controlled widget which can open your existing door locks;
4. Conduit Sports, headphones which plays music through your skull, not your ears;
5. Nomiku, providing food to be cooked sous-vide with their device;
6. And the popular Inboard which gave test drives of their electrical board to students.

I really enjoy TED.com, check this amazing set of inspiring resources in case you haven't heard about it!

As for the Silicon Valley Rugby Sevens, I managed to see 14 games on Sunday, a lot of action with only 7 players on each side but a full-size rugby field. Games only last for 15 minutes but may players looked exhausted at the end of each game. Kudos to Team USA for reaching the finals in such a competitive field, and Australia for their win!

2 mini videos for you to see the kind of action with so few players on such a large field:

One of many Team USA tries against England in semi final:

And, a heads-up, the 2018 World Cup of Rugby Sevens will be played in San Francisco (AT&T Park) in 8 months! Oh, and it has been an Olympic sport since Rio 2016, too. More champagne rugby to flow, yeah!!

And the hectic and ultra life goes on, nice to catch-up a week later! ;-)